TheKua Does Food

One of my favourite lunch time dishes in Calgary was going to the nearest Vietnamese place that did a wonderful Bahn Mi. Talking to my friend, Gerrod who lived in New York for sometime, apparently the Bahn Mi is taking the city by storm and I’m glad it’s about time that it did. When I went to Paris a couple of weeks ago, I made sure to track down a Bahn Mi place (that must be accompanied by a pearl tea!)

The Bahn Mi store that I found on the Internet is closest to the Arts et Métiers metro stop, literally only a block away. The store isn’t very well signed and I walked up and down until I saw that the name of the store wasn’t on the building itself, but a tiny non-descript sign hanging off the door. Fortunately they were still open when I went early afternoon, hoping to have to grab one for dinner.

The lady who runs this place is actually a Chinese lady who lived in Vietnam for sometime, and then moved to Paris. I’m amazed because she effectively spoke four languages (I had an easier time communicating with her in English than many other people that weekend) and so we got chatting as she put together my Bahn mi. I guess it’s probably about time to describe what this dish is. My memories of the Calgarian adaptation of the Bahn Mi is a toasted baguette (think Quiznos but better) filled with the classic Vietnamese marinated meat (or tofu) accompanied by fresh or pickled cucumbers and carrots, spicy coriander (cilantro for those americans), and tiny chopped chillis to give it that bite.

Here, the baguette is fresh and unlikely another one I had in little Vietnamese town, came toasted and freshly cooked. I had the beef particularly spicy, with a homemade deep and flavourful sauce that it really did remind me of the good times in Calgary. Given that the baguette was almost a foot long, this was one of the best value meals I had in Paris. I also made sure I had the sesame pearl tea that was made just as freshly. Yummo.

Name: Bahn Mi
Found at: 7 Rue Volta, 75003 Paris, France (look out for the dark black paint)
Website: None found though here’s a couple of links to some reviews

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The Banana Tree Canteen is one of those micro-chains providing pan-asian cuisine in a communal dining space made popular (or acceptable) by Wagamamas. There’s a few of them around town though the first one I’ve eaten at is the one located at Bayswater, just slightly down from the famously cheap Khan’s.

Out of the starters, we tried the Chicken Satay and the Chinese pork ribs. I’d definitely order the satay again, with juicy and slightly spiced chunks of chicken with enough char to give it some interesting contrast. I’m glad the accompanying sauce also had just the right level of chilli. On the other hand, I wish I could forget the ribs. The combination between an awfully strong pork flavour indicative of old meat and simply fried didn’t do anything to add flavour and made only worse drenched in a sickly sweet sauce.

Fortunately the main dish made up much more for it with a grilled pork dish served with a side salad and a chilli dipping sauce. You might think all that clear stuff on the plate is the oil, and maybe some of it is, but the rest was a light glaze made of honey that definitely worked well with the natural sweetness of the pork.

Dessert was up next and my dining partner couldn’t resist the black rice with coconut ice cream (pictured above). I can’t resist ordering the classic pandan pancake and the waitress was good enough to swap the normal ice cream for coconut ice cream as well.

Our waitress provided some very friendly service throughout the night, but if it’s like any other micro-chain will be variable depending on who’s working and their level of service. Three course dinner for 2 including a couple of soft drinks and tip: £47.80.

Name: Banana Tree Canteen(in Bayswater)
Found at: 21-23 Westbourne Grove, London W2 4UA
Website:

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There seems to be an explosion of Northern Chinese cuisine popping up all over London. One of the newest replaces Shaftsbury Avenue’s Chinese Experience with a new one called Golden Day. Like many of the new northern Chinese restaurants, their menu is a comprehensive photographic journey through the feasts on offer. It’s a good thing too because many of them are unusual sounding and strange dishes. Like any good restaurant, based on the sampling of dishes that we ordered, they also did a great job keeping them as close to the pictures.

The picture above contains Chicken with Chillis and Wood ear mushrooms. Unlike one of my most favourite Northern Chinese dish, the chicken with sichuan peppers, this one was cooked in a spicy, saucy broth, slowly reducing over the a live flame at the table. The wood ear mushrooms, one of the least spicy dishes on the menu provided a nice cool complement to the meal.

The other star of the meal was the Aubergine dish. Surrounded by bok choi, this well presented dish covered a salty, slightly spiced aubergine that was unimaginably delicious. We weren’t even rushed out of the restaurant like many other Chinese restaurants and tea promptly filled at regular intervals.

Name: Golden Day
Found at: 118-120 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 5EP
Website: (none found)

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One of best things about writing about food is that you help others find things it would take a long time for you to find. One such place I would never have stumbled across is Baan Tawan Gai Yang as written up by Hungry in Bangkok. I’m a huge fan of anything grilled and combined with anything spicy, it’s definitely one of the things I had to go out and try.

This place is found by getting out of the Ekkamai BTS station and heading directly north on Soi Ekkamai (which starts off being Sukhumvit 63). From memory it took me about 10 or 15 minutes to walk up there, so if you’re in a rush I’d catch a taxi. On the way, you pass all the different bars/clubs run by the various spirit brands and I think it was located right after a seafood restaurant.

I was pretty hungry by the time I found this place. Their menu has plenty of visuals and there was a great mix of locals and some foreigners dining there. I sat in the open air side section where there seemed to be more locals.

This is a picture of the Gai Yang (grilled chicken) that came with two different types of dipping sauces – the sweet chilli sauce and a sour one. Both of them went really well with the chicken and I could have done with much more. The chicken also arrived with plenty of fried shallots on top, adding another set of depth to the dish. Perfectly grilled, chicken not too dry and a lovely smoky skin, this was totally worth the trip.

Above is the Tod Mun Goong (Fish & Prawn Cakes) that I thought I was going to have as an appetiser. I had no idea that these were almost the serving of a full sized dish with at least 7 or 8 large cakes. Covered in Japanese-panko style bread crumbs, these cakes were the best I’ve had anywhere. It probably helped that they cooked them fresh – I bit too eagerly into the first one not realising how freshly cooked they work and they were great because they were soft, juicy and really tasty. If not for ordering lots of food, I could have eaten many more of these.

This dish is their Som Tum (Papaya Salad). I thought I’d ordered the carrot one as recommended by Hungry in Bangkok, but apparently I didn’t. This version didn’t disappoint though with such lovely textures and complex flavours combined with that immense kick of chilli that permeated throughout.

I had a beer to go with my dinner and the funniest thing about the dinner was the fact that they kept coming around to top up the beer that was poured into the glass and then put ice into the glass to keep the beer cold. I would have preferred to keep the beer bottle in the ice bucket and then simply pour the beer out but I can see why they were doing this.

This place is great for a casual dinner with lots of friends. It was definitely on the cheaper end of the scale and great value for the quality of the food you get. I really wanted to return to try some other dishes but unfortunately I ran out of time.

Name: Baan Tawan Gai Yang
Found at: Ekkamai soi 1, Bangkok, Thailand

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On the very first night I got to Bangkok, I knew that I had to stay up as late as possible to beat the jetlag you get from travelling eastward. Fortunately Bangkok has plenty of things to do at night time, including their famous Suan Lum Night Market. I was staying very close to the Asoke BTS and it was ridiculously easy to get the night markets, catching an underground metro where you get off at Lumphini where the markets sit pretty much right outside.

Unlike many other outdoor markets, these ones tend to centre around a number of buildings that don’t move, instead roller doors opening to reveal most of the contents of each of the market stalls. On one side of the market (I discovered much later) they have an open seating food court-like dining plaza where you “buy” food currency and exchange them for the food items with the ability of refunding any food currency you don’t use. It’s a practical way of ensuring the money is collected centrally and you still get some variety.

Ending up much hungrier, I ended up at a food stall that was on the other side of the market – the cafe was also open air and noticed a mix of tourists and locals eating here. I don’t actually remember catching the name of the place but it’s directly opposite the restaurant hosting the puppet theatre show. They did have menus in English although I already knew what I wanted – the famous Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodle). The waiter asked me if it’s okay hot, and I instantly replied – of course.

I also ordered a large Chang beer because it seemed to be the local beer of choice and it was ridiculously hot and steamy I thought would make a good accompaniment for the noodle dish. I also got to choose the type of noodle (flat rice noodle vs egg noodle) and the type of meat. It wasn’t long before the dish arrived. As you can see above it was full of fresh Thai basil, loads of chilli and fresh peppercorns. It also definitely packed a lot of heat with the first mouthful turning on an instant fire. Deliciously spicy but not uncomfortably so.

The best part about it was that I spent about THB140 for the entire meal – not even GBP3.

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Hao Zhan has been on the list for some time, although has been on the “special occasion” list since prices are much higher than your ordinary Chinese restaurant. Fortunately, I found out this restaurant is bookable using the Taste London card, where you can order 2-4-1 on dishes, making it a much more reasonably priced meal after all. Hao Zhan distinguishes itself from other places in Chinatown, taking a more modern and upscale theme on Chinese food. They offer a huge mixture of various cuisines even with dish like Marmite Prawns (didn’t oblige them on them on this one).

Tables for two are packed tightly next to each other, obvious that they are better suited for four people at a time if you want a bit more privacy. However the restaurant is brightly lit, and its black lacquered tables and almost-neon jade green sign (not as cheesy as you would think) definitely makes it stand out from its neighbours.

Here are all the dishes that we tried:

Jasmine Ribs – Amazingly tender with plenty of flavour, these ribs were a perfect way to kick start the meal. Its meat, slightly sweet and lusciously smoked, more importantly pretty much fall of the rib style. Accompanied by a bowl with a lemon wedge and wet towels for additional cleaning power.

Chilli Quail – We shared this as part of our appetiser, including small fried quails legs and wings covered in a chilli salt mix with fried onions. Flavoursome without being overtly salty. The spice was enough to give it gentle heat and add to the flavour without being overwhelming.

Assam Prawns – A strong, flavourful curry concentrated into a rendang-like paste covering prawns and served in a crusty bread bowl. The prawns were massive – much bigger than any king prawn that I’d seen and still flavoursome to boot. The curry paste was a touch salty, concentrated down and then absorbed into the crusty loaf but when eaten with the loaf was a lot more balanced.

Seafood fried rice – This seafood fried rice packed lots of flavour and would have been perfect as a dish on its own. This fried rice also had a decent amount of meats mixed into it. As you can, it was also presented nicely in a little container.

Honey black cod – As you can see from this picture, this piece of black cod was a generous proportion, even for the £18 it cost. The honey was subtlety flavoured yet was still present throughout the entire dish. Even the strength of the Assam prawns couldn’t take away from its flavour. Served with fresh asparagus and a sweet sauce (it tasted like pomegranate mayonnaise) we both weren’t too thrilled about.

Fried ice cream – This is a dish very popular in Australian-Chinese restaurants and I know of only one other Chinese restaurant in London that serves this. Everything about this one was almost perfect, from the crisp outer shell to the perfectly right ice cream consistency – neither too firm or too soft. The only weird thing about this dish was how they put tomato sauce on top (when I’m used to some sort of chocolate or strawberry syrup).

Although pricey, the quality and service of Hao Zhan is definitely better than your average Chinese restaurant. With the Taste London card, it’s made even more affordable and reasonably priced.

Our meal for two (including two lychee juices) cost just over £50 for the two of us.

Name: Hao Zhan
Found at: 8 Gerrard Street, London, W1D 5PJ, London
Website: http://www.haozhan.co.uk/

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I’d heard much about Bar Shu before finally eating here last Friday. It’s most well known for its Northern Chinese cuisine, easy to probably get in mainland China but distinctly less popular and hard to find around England. I’ve noticed many Northern Chinese restaurants popping up around London and just haven’t found the opportunity to try any of them.

I booked Wednesday night for a party of eight for Friday evening. By booking ahead for such a large party, we ended up in one of their private, more intimate function rooms on the second floor – a little bit hard to find but for the privacy, definitely worth it. Over the phone, they told us we could only have the seating for 2 hours but the evening must have been very quiet since we were allowed to sit there all night.

Not being familiar with Northern Chinese, Bar Shu is considerate to have a highly visual menu making it easy to pick. Fortunately I was dining with lots of people familiar with the cuisine so I didn’t have to worry about it.

Here’s all the different things we dined on:

Fragrant Chicken in a pile of chillies – Reminded me of the black chicken I had in Hong Kong. My mouth watered in anticipation just from trialling the spiciness in this dish. It definitely has a lot of kick although the pieces of chicken were very minuscule, literally hard to separate from many of the other ingredients.

Dry fried green beans with minced pork – Nice green beans that had a subtle flavour, made salty by the addition of the pork.

Pock marked old woman’s beancurd (Ma Po Tofu) that was saucy, but not as fiery as I had hoped. It was a strangely sweet sauce as well.

Assorted meats in a fiery sauce - ox tripe, pig intestines, pig’s blood and luncheon meat in a more subdued spicy sauce. It’s very much a lucky dip for textures.

Boiled sea bass with sizzling chilli oil – This is a spectacular dish that I recently saw cooked on Poh’s kitchen. It’s not for the faint of heart with, literally a bowl of oil at the table. The fish was magnificently cooked though – soft and succulent and that slight heat from all the chillies. It’s not as hot as you’d think it would be considering the fish was immersed in all those spices.

Bar shu cold noodles with chicken slivers – The cold noodles helped bring a slight relief to the bombardment of spices and flavours. The noodles were drenched in a sesame soy sauce with garlic

Jellyfish ribbons in dark chinese vinegar – A lovely mouth feel that also was a great way to prevent the mouth from being overwhelmed by spices.

Lotus Root with Woodear mushrooms – A delicately light dish that was another great, non-spicy dish. The lotus root crispy like an apple and the mushrooms providing a strong earthy flavour.

Numbing Beef – This was supposed to be an appetiser and it simply turned up first before the rest of the dishes made their way to the table. It was definitely what it was called on the menu with the Szechuan peppers kicking in with its numbing effect.

Chinese vegetables – Even a simple dish like this was drizzled with chilli oil, though this one was barely noticeable after all of the other dishes.

Perhaps it was because we had a private room upstairs, but service wasn’t as rushed and prompt as most Chinese restaurants were. They didn’t keep the water topped up as much as they could have, but the waitress checked in just enough for the weekend. The food is decadent and particularly rich with oil and spices, so it’s not a dinner you want to have every night. However there is no doubt the food was well executed and full of flavour and sensations you tend not to have in many other cuisines (even your typical Cantonese Chinese restaurants). Delicious!

Name: Bar Shu
Found at: 28 Frith Street, W1D 5LF, London
Website: http://www.bar-shu.co.uk/
Phone number: +44 20 7287 8822

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I’ve eaten at Anna Hansen’s bisto for breakfast before so I was pretty happy to go here for my flatmate’s birthday dinner last weekend. What made it all the more exciting was having seen Anna at the Taste of Christmas last year and talk passionately about her cooking interests and the thought behind dishes such as her Sugar-cured New Caledonian prawn omelette, spring onion, coriander, smoked chilli sambal. Therefore when I sat it on their menu as a starter (£8.50), I couldn’t but help myself and order it.

Although it’s pricey for a starter, it was deliciously put together – perfectly cooked egg, slightly sweet prawns and and the homemade chilli sambal adding that depth of heat to the dish. I’d definitely get this one again.

For my main, I ordered the grilled miso marinated steak onglet, cassava chips, feta cheese and salad with green pepper relish (£16.50). The onglet is an interesting cut of meat, often called the butcher’s cut because there is only one of these per cow, and it’s flavour and taste and tenderness often mean butcher’s would rather keep it than sell it. There’s a good reason for it, since it was so tender and really nice. Interesting, the waiter asked if cooking it rare was okay – completely fine with me in a restaurant I trust who knows what to do with it.

I finished the meal off with a hokey-pokey affogato(£4), a combination of two rare items to find in London that I would definitely regret not ordering it the next day. Delicious hokey pokey ice cream (effectively crumble mixed through ice cream) and then served in small cup with an espresso shot tipped on top. I absolutely adore the contrast brought about by dishes mixing hot and cold sensations.

I can highly recommend this place for a great evening. Service was prompt, and not even noticeable at times, the perfect sort. Even though we were the last ones out and hanging around quite late, no one ever asked us to leave.

Name: The Modern Pantry
Found at: 48 Saint John’s Square, London EC1V 4JJ
Website: http://www.themodernpantry.co.uk/

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We organised yet another team dinner out in Cambridge, this time deciding to hit a restaurant called Asia. I’d read some great things about it so I was quite excited to do so. I’d arranged the booking a week in advance, although I was surprised when I called up the day before our dinner to find out that our booking disappeared into the ether. Fortunately they still had space for our change in dining numbers.

We sat at a very local freehouse (St Radegund) in Cambridge (highly recommended for a very pub-like experience) when I received a call from the restaurant telling me that their Thai chef did not turn up. I thought this was quite nice of them, though understandable, when half of their menu is Thai.

We also had strange service throughout the entire night, mainly because we had a bit of a newbie waiter asking one of his colleagues to come across. I think it was the first five questions that sent him running that triggered us to have a bit of a laugh of it throughout the night. Strangeness continued throughout the evening, with the wine menu being presented with an one extensive page each, of red and white wines, yet then to be told only four bottles were available of the 20+ listed.

On to the food. The menu was pretty large, although being “pan-asian” they only seemed to have Indian/Pakistani and then Thai foods. This is probably a good choice because pan asian restaurants tend to offer greater variety of cuisines at the cost of quality. Fortunately they hadn’t sacrificed quality. I skipped the starters, although everyone else said their starter was delicious. They certainly looked like it. Then the mains finally arrived and I almost regret ordering the plethora of side dishes.

I ordered their Chicken Lababdar (Tandoori chicken tikka cooked in lababdar gravy with fresh ginger, green chilli, coriander and finished with cream) which ended up deliciously spicy and creamy at the same time. It was a hugely generous serve (as were all of the main dishes), hence regretting the presence of all the side dishes we ordered.

We ended up taking all the leftover food home. Despite all the strangeness, if you simply treated this as an Indian/Pakistani restaurant the food is definitely worth going for. I can also recommend ordering their mango creme brulee.

Name: Asia Dining Room
Found at: 66 Regent Street, Cambridge, CB2 1DP
Website: http://www.asia-dining.co.uk/cambridge

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One of my favourite Thai dishes is the famously spicy Pad Kee Mao. Its spiciness is said to contribute to its English translation, “Druken Noodles” not because the noodles are drenched in any particular liquid, but because you often need to reach for a drink due its spiciness and best drunk with beer.

Not all Thai places serve this noodle, but I often ask them if they do it off the menu (great where they actually have a real Thai chef). I’ve successfully made this at home, so here’s the recipe that I used:

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp water
• 2 tsp brown sugar/palm sugar
• 1/4 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp gold mountain (a classic seasoning sauce used in Thai cooking)
• 1 tsp soy regular
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp smashed thai chillies
• 1 sliced chilli
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 block of firm tofu cubed into bite sized pieces
• vegetables
• flat rice noodles, separated into different strands
• bell pepper/capsicum
• onion
• Thai basil (optional)

Method

1. Combine the water, sugar, gold moutain, soy, oyster sauces together with the smashed chillies. This will be added at the end of the cooking.
2. Prepare all vegetables – slice the onions, peppers into fine strips. Cut the vegetables into similar sizes.
3. Fry the tofu until it has a relatively crispy skin and set aside
4. Reheat the pan, starting with the garlic, onion then adding the chili to fry off.
5. Cook the vegetables and when ready, add the noodles. Having previously separated them makes it easier to mix together and still leave whole
6. Add the tofu and then fry until the noodle is soft and cooked. At the last moment, throw in the prepared sauce and stir until the noodles are evenly coated with it
7. Just before serving, I like to mix some Thai basil through to add another layer of flavour

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